Hi, I'm Brooke!

I'm a Grand Rapids, MI photographer specializing in birth photography and family photojournalism. I like to teach other women how to use their DSLRs to photograph their families, too. I believe in the power of beauty and the beauty of the raw and ordinary.

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In this work I do, I get to see and photograph a LOT of mamas. Mamas at the moment they become mamas, as they pull their babies up to their chests and cry happy tears over them. Mamas who are welcoming their 2nd (or 3rd or 6th) baby into their families, and thereby growing their mothering heart exponentially...again. Mothers nourishing their babes at their breasts, then nourishing their children at their kitchen table with lovingly prepared meals. Mothers comforting, holding, kissing, singing, scolding, teaching, tickling, correcting, carrying, playing, and laughing. Mothers at home in their own spaces that they've created to be soft landing places for their families.

I SEE you, mothers. I see you because I am one of you. And when I come photograph you, I do it because I want to show you -- through my limited by loving and artistic perspective -- that you are a million good things: you are faithful, steady, sacrificial, blessed, of value, loved and loving. From the moment you get a positive pregnancy test and through every moment that follows.

So Mother's Day this year meant a lot to me as a photographer this year, just as it meant a lot to me personally as a mother who recently birthed her third baby.

I put together a couple collages to celebrate. Since I didn't have unlimited time, I just made them to wish a happy FIRST mother's day to those mamas I've photographed this past year who just became moms for the first time. But if i'd had more time, there would have been collages of all the Milk Time mamas with their little ones, and all the mamas of 2+ kids in their family photojournalism sessions, and the mamas whose births were for their 2nd+ child.

If you haven't already, please consider letting me -- or another gifted photographer you admire! -- come by with my camera to "see" you in this way. You will never regret it, not ever. I love the movement going on to #getmominthesquare and similar. I want to get you - the mama, who is usually behind the camera -- into the visual history of your family in an authentic way. So get in touch.

I'm also going to be launching a new "deal" toward that end soon. Stay tuned.

To end, here are a few photo collages I made to celebrate my own motherhood this mother's day. These three bring so much goodness. My cup runs over.